Fans stoned, quartered and decapitated a soccer referee after the ref stabbed a player to death during a match.

The deadly incident took place June 30 during an amateur match in Maranhao, Brazil, after referee Otavio Jordao da Silva threw out player Josenir dos Santos Abreu, ESPN FC reported. Abreu, 31, is believed to have struck Silva after the player questioned a decision.

According to a police statement, the ref and player got into a fistfight, then Silva pulled a knife and stabbed Abreu, the Associated Press reported in a story carried by SI.com.

Enraged spectators stormed the field, tied up Silva, and beat, stoned and quartered him. Silva's head was mounted on a stake that they planted in the middle of the field.

Abreu, meanwhile, died on the way to the hospital.

One man has been arrested and two more are being sought in Silva's death, authorities said.

The incident came about a year before Brazil hosts soccer's World Cup championship.

It followed by a little more than two months an April 27 incident in Taylorsville, Utah, in which a 17-year-old goalie allegedly punched referee Ricardo Portillo, 46, in the face after Portillo issued him a yellow card. Portillo sustained internal head injuries, fell into a coma and died a week later, CNN reported.

The player, whose name has been withheld by media because of his age, has pleaded not guilty to homicide by assault and apologized to Portillo's family.

Portillo is the second soccer official in the United States to die as the result of a referee assault, but observers told The New York Times they believe many serious assaults on refs go unreported.

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